Investigations

Aurora theater shooting: Costs for police, lawyers already soaring

Police cars line the streets after a shooting that left a dozen people dead and dozens of others wounded at the The Dark Knight Rises premiere at the Century 16 theater in Aurora on Friday, July 20, 2012. (THE DENVER POST file | AARON ONTIVEROZ)

AURORA — Police spent nearly 26 percent of the year's law enforcement budget for overtime pay in responding to the July 20 mass shooting in a movie theater.

The city so far has spent $462,600 on overtime costs for police officers and civilian employees following the midnight movie killings at the Century Aurora 16 theater and has applied for a federal grant to help cover the costs. The costs include investigators and responders on the morning of the shooting, security at a large vigil held later and protection for visiting dignitaries.

On average, Aurora spends $1.8 million a year on police overtime. Fire department overtime totals have not yet been released.

The Aurora figures are just part of the public cost of that morning's horror. James Eagan Holmes, 24, a former University of Colorado Denver doctoral student, is charged with scores of counts of murder and attempted murder in the shootings that killed 12 and injured 58.

Should the Holmes case proceed to trial, both prosecution and defense are likely to spend thousands on investigators, expert witnesses and other associated costs.

And even before the first lawsuit has been filed, taxpayers and college students are on the hook for thousands in legal fees at the University of Colorado.

CU has agreed to pay $505 an hour for a single lawyer to review what officials there knew about Holmes and when they knew it. As that lawyer brings in associates and paralegals from his firm, Perkins Coie, they will be billed to the university at $245 an hour or more and $205 an hour, respectively, according to an agreement signed July 30.

There is no cap on the total cost, according to the agreement.

Police vehicles line the streets in front of the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora following a shooting that left a dozen people dead and dozens of others wounded during a premier of The Dark Knigh Rises on Friday, July 20, 2012. (THE DENVER POST file | AARON ONTIVEROZ)

"As I am sure you understand, we cannot guarantee the length and outcome of the review which you have asked us to conduct," Perkins Coie partner Robert N. Miller wrote in a letter to CU president Bruce Benson. "It is impossible to estimate with any certainty what the total charges may come to for any proceeding or assessment we undertake on your behalf."

The university will provide a separate firm, Senter Goldfarb & Rice, to represent a campus police officer who may have been told by a therapist that Holmes posed a threat, according to an Aug. 9, 2012, letter from the firm to the university. The firm's letter states it will provide legal defense services for other CU employees and officials if asked.

The university is paying that firm's lead attorney, Thomas Rice, and any of his senior partners, $225 an hour. Other partners receive $185 an hour and associates, $165 an hour.

A third firm, Hall & Evans, is representing the therapist, Lynne Fenton, but the university was not able to provide the contracted costs Tuesday. Attorneys Jane Mitchell and Richard Murray are assisting Fenton.

The funds for each of the firms are coming from different pots of money at the university.

Dan Meyers, communications director for the university's school of medicine, said that the fee for Perkins Coie will be paid from the "President's Initiative Fund" — a pool of interest earnings from university deposits of tuition payments and taxpayer contributions. Benson has authority to spend that money on university projects.

The fees for Senter Goldfarb & Rice and Hall & Evans come from two separate sources — one for physicians and another for university employees — of legal contingency funds, Meyers said.

Aurora is also spending $300 an hour to pay an attorney at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to respond to open records requests from the media and others for everything from police reports to building plans for the theater.

"I just am not staffed to respond to all the requests we received," said Aurora City Attorney Charlie Richardson.

The final bill to taxpayers is far from complete.

"It's not over," said Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, noting that police are likely to be required to work overtime to help prosecutors prepare their case or testify. "There are more costs coming."

This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to incorrect information provided by a source, the annual budget for Aurora's law enforcement overtime was wrong. The city budgets $1.8 million annually for that overtime.

By the numbers

$1.8 million

Average spent on police overtime a year in Aurora

$462,600

Amount spent on overtime for police officers and civilian employees following the shooting

$505

hourly wage for a single lawyer hired by CU to review what officials there knew about Holmes and when

$300

hourly wage for an attorney hired by Aurora to respond to open records requests

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